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A little more than one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as F1's latest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from the ground up has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.

The Countdown to Melbourne

At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the America, with approximately a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.

The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and has a amused expression when considering the experience.

“You might get a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”

A Unique Task

The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.

“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the possibility to alter team culture.”

With each passing day that passes minds are more focused on the impending decisive point in Australia and goals are being handled.

“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.

“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”

Pilot Selection and Hiring Push

In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of determined optimism.

“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with this group, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”

To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.

Apollo Blueprint

“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”

So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the mission across a variety of locations.

“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager consults a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”

What Lies Ahead

The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta